Hey guys, it’s Medicine Mondays again. Recently, these posts have been centered around The Match. However, The Match has come and gone. Now the 4th years are winding down their rotations and beginning to plan for their intern years. So today I’m going to talk about Post-Match Senioritis.

Stock Photo from: Pexels

Congratulations! You have matched!

So… now what?

Well, there is still all those things on the Post Match Checklist to do, but you also still have to finish our your 4th year… remember?

So… Senioritis may set in…

And I’m here to tell you, it’s ok. The whole point of medical school was preparing you to get into the residency you want. It’s very similar to high school when you’ve already gotten into college as a high school senior and your classes for the rest of the year don’t really matter.

However, if you were anything like me, you probably had AP classes and AP exams to study for. Even so, the weight on your shoulders about where you were going afterwards has been lifted. You should feel a sense of relief. Take advantage of this to get the most out of the rest of your 4th year.

Option 1:

For some of you, you may have scheduled some of your more difficult rotations toward the end of your 4th year in order to have an “easier” time during residency interviews. If you did this, then you should take advantage of this opportunity to learn as much as you can. However, there is no need to work yourself too hard.

Your attendings should be well aware that The Match has come and gone. Most likely the first question you will receive from them upon meeting them is what specialty you matched into, with the follow-up question of where.

Example:

You’ve matched into Internal Medicine, and you are going to do your Internal Medicine Sub-Internship now. You will likely be given much more responsibility than on your previous Internal Medicine rotations and your intern will be counting on you. Take advantage of this opportunity to take responsibility for your own patient. It is your intern’s job to know his/her patients. However, if one of his/her patients is given to you, treat them as if you are the intern taking care of them.

Taking responsibility for your own patients is the most important part of being an intern (and a doctor in general).

Option 2:

For others, you may have front-loaded all of your “difficult rotations” at the beginning of 3rd year, allowing you to go into “cruise control” as you head to graduation.

Example :

You’ve matched into Emergency Medicine and you have your Radiology Rotation scheduled (also known as Radiovacation at many schools). Radiology will still be extremely important to you in Emergency Medicine. For this reason, you should let your Radiology Attendings know that you are going into Emergency Medicine and are most interested in the Emergency setting. Your radiology attending should be able to create a more focused schedule for you to get the most out of the rotation.

I think you will get the most value sitting with the attending while they read out with the overnight radiology resident. Cases will be presented in a rapid fire manner giving your broad exposure. Then you will gain an understanding of why certain studies were ordered based on clinical history and why they were protocoled a certain way. In my experience, it’s pretty common to send the medical student home after lunch/noon conference. The most value comes from morning read out, cleaning up cases in the morning, and noon conference.

Anything else?

Yes.

Take advantage of this time before internship to take care of yourself. Spend time with friends and family.

If you’re a writer, take some time to write out your own “Talking to Med Student Me”, and send it to me: sensei@seniorresident.com Medicine continues to evolve and change. I was a med student nearly 10 years ago. The things I would talk to myself about may be different than the things you would talk to yourself about. Or, you may disagree with me.

Understand that matching into residency has essentially secured you a spot in a profession which both dedicates itself to and prides itself on Life-Long Learning.

Make a commitment to try to better yourself and your knowledge everyday.

TL;DR

The Match has come and gone. Now what?

Take advantage of the time you have left to learn as much as you can focused on your specialty.

Take responsibility for your own patients.

Welcome to Life-Long Learning.

Make a commitment to try to better yourself and your knowledge everyday.

-Sensei

Agree? Disagree? Questions, Comments and Suggestions are welcome.

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